Legislation to require the FCC to set aside spectrum for free national wireless broadband could be part of a national stimulus package -- but whether it will make the cut among the hundreds of items under consideration isn’t clear, industry officials said Thursday.
A Philadelphia Inquirer editorial sharply criticized FCC Chairman Kevin Martin. It said he played favorites and imposed a “reign of terror” at the commission. “President- elect Barack Obama should move fast, once in office, to replace Martin,” the paper said. It said Martin had “abused his position of power to go after cable companies while treating telecommunications firms with kid gloves.” Comcast, the largest U.S. cable provider, has its headquarters in Philadelphia. Martin’s proposal to cap cable companies’ market shares is an especially bad idea, the editorial said. “It’s easy to beat up on Comcast, which often gets poor marks for customer satisfaction,” the Inquirer said. “And we're all in favor of better service, more competition, and lower cable bills. But Martin’s arbitrary decision-making seems to target one industry, when the goal should be to create an even and competitive playing field.” “It’s absolutely wrong that Chairman Martin favors telecom companies over cable or favors any particular industry,” an FCC spokeswoman said in response. “The commission under Chairman Martin has gone after both industries equally in order to ensure consumer benefits. The fact is that the commission has seen an increase in cable rates and a decrease in telecom rates, and the commission’s goal is to ensure a level playing field.”
Boeing urged caution as the FCC takes up a July NTIA petition asking that 1090 MHz be allocated to runway-vehicle identification and collision avoidance. Air traffic controllers already use the technology to manage aircraft, but other vehicles, including snowplows, emergency vehicles and maintenance vehicles, that operate near or on the runway don’t get similar monitoring, according to a November FCC notice seeking comment on the proposal.
Concerns are growing that the FCC faces additional sanctions from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit unless it provides an additional response to that court on the ISP remand beyond its interim order released last month, FCC and industry officials said this week. The FCC on Nov. 5 issued an order responding to the court’s long-standing remand by providing additional justification for the original 2001 ISP-bound traffic rule, without changing compensation rules overall.
Texas corrections officials this week scuttled a planned test of cell-jamming equipment, deciding not to follow South Carolina officials (CD Nov 25 p1) who conducted such a test last month over the objections of CTIA and wireless carriers. The test was scheduled for a jail in Austin, by CellAntenna, the Florida company that conducted the South Carolina test and hopes to perform similar demonstrations across the U.S. “At every turn, we have attempted to identify a legal way to perform this test so that we could move forward,” said Oliver Bell, chairman of the Texas Board of Criminal Justice. “The bottom line at this point is that we have not identified a legal method. As such, I feel it is inappropriate to conduct the test. I cannot, in good faith, violate the law in front of our nearly 38,000 employees and then demand they violate no law under threat of prosecution.” But an FCC spokesman said in a statement Tuesday the commission encourages the state to move forward with the tests. “We recognize the concerns of public safety regarding this complex issue and FCC Chairman Kevin Martin remains committed to trying to work with public safety officials to address their needs,” an agency spokesman said.
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin’s decision to cancel Thursday’s scheduled FCC meeting appears to leave key issues like AWS-3 and WCS/SDARS dead in the water and the FCC unlikely to act on anything but DTV issues in the near future, industry officials said. The decision came late Friday in response to a letter from lawmakers asking the FCC to act just on DTV transition issues between now and the Obama inauguration (CD Dec 15 p1). Martin acted without polling other commissioner offices and they were caught by surprise, agency officials said Monday. Items already on circulation for the meeting, including rules for a proposed AWS-3 auction, appear all but dead under the current FCC, officials said.
The first devices that use the TV white spaces to surf the Internet likely won’t hit store shelves for at least a year, high-tech and FCC officials said last week. The FCC approved an order effectively opening the white spaces Nov. 4, but the agency still must develop a database so that the first generation of devices, which check channels against a geolocation database before they turn on, can be sold. An additional wild card is a likely legal challenge to the order on the part of broadcasters.
Former FCC Chairman Michael Powell is an informal advisor to the Obama presidential transition team, we've learned. Powell, a Republican and surrogate at several election forums for rival presidential candidate John McCain, was brought in at the request of Kevin Werbach, a member of the FCC transition review team, one official said. Another said Powell’s work for Obama was part of an effort to cross party lines and reach out to Republicans prior to the inauguration. Powell did not return calls seeking comment. Powell who resigned as chairman on Jan. 21, 2005, is a senior advisor at Providence Equity Capital and chairman of the MK Powell Group. He also is on numerous corporate and institutional boards as well as rector of the Board of Visitors at his alma mater, the College of William and Mary. Former Secretary of State Colin Powell, his father, made headlines when he endorsed Obama for president.
Adoption of numbers-based system as part of Universal Service Fund reform would have a negative effect on “important emergency communications services” if the fee is imposed on vehicle telematics services, such as OnStar or ATX, APCO and the National Emergency Number Association warned the FCC. Telematics companies were also at the FCC for recent meetings to ask the FCC not to impose the fee on their lines, a step proposed in all three rulemakings on USF reform now before commissioners.
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin appears to be setting up for a vote at the Dec. 18 commission meeting an order that would ban the manufacture, import, sale or shipment of wireless microphones that use the 700 MHz band. But some details of the proposed order aren’t clear. Martin is to circulate Wednesday evening other orders, too, for what probably will be his last major meeting as chairman.